Motorcycles

Rubber fun: got the new tires mounted. The Boss wanted big and knobby, so ordered up a set of Continental TKC80 Duro tires, size 4.00-18 on the rear and 100/90-19 on the front, for $280 CDN. By all accounts these are great tires for what they can do and, if the reports are to be believed, still…

No funny blog title today: this part is (more) serious. The rear wheel bearings had me worried. It’s press fit, requires heat and accurate sequence of parts and preload. If the engine was something I wanted to tackle on my next build (hence we farmed out the engine rebuild to Shail’s here in Vancouver, Canada…

Since we’re still waiting on the engine I figured let’s start thinking about ride height tests and light mounting points and other parts you can’t really get a sense of on the stand. But that requires having tires on the bike, which requires wheels, which requires a swing arm to attach to. Had made the…

The Boss found a big piece of the puzzle at a specialty wrecker out in Langley last week: the fork off a Suzuki DR650. With calliper! And in dirty but good (great?) condition. We’ll see about that. Turns out this is a somewhat popular fork to put on an old airhead, not because it’s an…

Toodling around the garage, waiting for the engine to come in (little did I know it’s still wayyyyyy delayed). Some miscellaneous items and add-ons for the R80 this week.

After cleaning out and overhauling the under-tank master cylinder a couple months ago, I checked on it once a week and sure enough, it was leaking. Not leaking a lot, but any amount of brake fluid outside the brakes is Not A Good Thing™. So with another Wunderlich order needed for various other service parts…

Biggest learning curve and most time on this project has been spent on the electrical system. Not knowing anything about vehicle electrics, or really even how electricity works, has been a steep but satisfying learning curve. Will get into the wiring diagram later. Here’s the progress made on the actual bench this week.  This…

Did a hip grid of all (well, most) of the parts for the build. From left-to-right, top-to-bottom. All new unless otherwise stated: Front forks (original) bar end mirrors (no name) Emgo scrambler / tracker handlebar Motogadget Motoscope Tiny speedometre Motogadget m.unit blue digital controller Rubber grommets, assorted Mufflers (original) Posh blinker and tail lights Motogadget…

Started the re-build this week. The custom subframe and battery holder from Crowe Metal Co. are in so I can start to get a sense of how it will all come together. Still waiting on the engine rebuild from Shail’s in Langley, BC, Canada—I don’t want to do much more until I can work off…

The deluxe expensive as all hell carb rebuild kit came in last week, following the carb tear-down from a month ago. So like a good racer my weekend was spent carb loading. Reassembly is pretty straight forward, even if I hadn’t taken them apart, as most of the carb pegs only fit in their corresponding…

Straight forward afternoon at the garage going through parts one-by-one. It gets a bit ridiculous spending half an hour cleaning and polishing the rear brake switch, which sets a precedent, so now you got to clean and polish every little bit. But that’s the precedent we set, and this bike may never see this kind…

Getting into the high(er) priority work now: cleaning and inspecting critical parts. Tonight’s showdown with: My process tonight is basically: Front Master Cylinders The PO had installed a front lever-mounted master cylinder years ago, leaving BMW’s original ATE under tank versions to rust away in a box. We’re hoping to use them again to keep…

New year, new paint: the frame, wheels, tank, foot pegs, a few other odds and ends went off to the powder coaters last week, little shop near Lumby, BC, Canada. And yes, the tank is being powder coated. Buddy is taking care of that side of things, I believe it’s a polyurethane gloss they can…

Getting a lot more beep-bop-boop this time. On order we’ve got an m.unit blue, 2x m.switch three-button controls, and a motoscope tiny speedometre (all Motogadget products). I’m re-doing and simplifying the entire wire harness and getting rid of anything I don’t need by going to the m.unit blue. Only other change to the stock bike…

Having overhauled the carbs on my four cylinder ’78 Kawi half a dozen times, what a joy to only have two to tear down and rebuild. And I don’t even have to break a sweat, swear, and scrape my knuckles pulling them out. Took apart the right carb, seems straightforward so far. Every thing I…

Questions for tonight: Sourcing new seat lock? Options for matching keys / getting new keys? Sourcing new bolt and nut hardware…maybe ALL the bolts? Can you tell me more about this amazing frame pump the bike came with?! Just an hour in the garage tonight, final prep on the frame before paint next week. Part…

Did I mention we’re powder coating the frame, so we’d like to have the drive shaft out of the swing arm, but I couldn’t get the end nut—which is inside the drive cone—off? Took it to my buddy’s automotive garage where a vibrating Snap-on tool (looks like a 1950s little ray gun), followed by an…

Remember those small puzzles as a kid, where two loops of steel were wrapped around each other and you had to figure out how to detach them with just the right number of steps and angles and twist and turns? Like that, but heavier.

Dedicated penetrating sprays didn’t work. Banging about with a 2×4 didn’t work. A little acetone and 60 seconds later out popped the fork steerer. Other items from last night: Remove swingarm…so uh yeah, I didn’t see through all the grease that those swingarm pivot bolts have a 6mm hex socket in them…took one minute to…

Almost down to the frame: just swingarm, driveshaft, front forks, any pressed bearings, and engine to go. Everything prepped, most nuts and bolts off, just need to read up on best practices for: Removing swingarm…axle, i.e. threaded…bolts? axle? Still in there after removing the 27mm nuts, don’t want to force them until I know what…

Thinking I’ll continue this thread with updates on my process in the hopes that the wise and experienced amongst us can continue to point out tips / problems. I’ll also endeavour to search out answers from previous threads before asking here. I was solo flying tonight and spent seven hours stripping down, bagging, and tagging.…

Best practice and order of steps for a complete teardown to the bare frame, then building it back up again?